Summer!

The Summer holidays are here. The last few weeks have been a marathon to reach the end of the school year. I've never known a summer term be so busy with all Sophia's social calendar to negotiate amongst everything else! I am looking forward to lazy mornings, relaxing, catching up with friends and a bit of sewing and knitting here and there! The sewing and knitting has been slow of late but am hoping to have catch up time over the hols. There are still so many projects to complete yet I am still buying more fabric! We've just returned from a fabulous mini-mini-break (basically one night away) in the Surrey village of Abinger Common. We stayed in a lovely B&B called Leylands Farm which essentially had its own guest annexe. It's location, between Guildford and Dorking, gave me the perfect opportunity to visit The Quilt Room. I bought (yet another and pictured above!) jelly roll - Bliss by Bonnie and Camille, which I've been hankering after for ages! Also pictured above is my summer project - the rainbow camper. It is a counted cross stitch kit that I saw on the Clothkits website and I just had to have! I'm not the greatest fan of cross-stitch, well not the framed variety, but this I plan to turn into a funky cushion! As always I have my work cut out!

Things I'm doing

I am plodding along with many projects - as usual! I can't seem to resist starting something new despite the fact I have many WIPs!
I've started a quilt along with Amanda-Jean of crazymomquilts fame. I've made the decision to only use scraps in this one as I can't justify buying more fabric until I've cleared some of my stash. This is partly because a scrumptious new fabric shop has opened near me!
I'm also knitting a cushion from Amy Butler's new book 'Midwest Modern Knits', using her new yarn for Rowan - 'Belle'. It's a quick, chunky knit, made using two skeins at the same time. I'm planning to only knit one side of the cushion cover, using fabric on the back.
My brother's wedding quilt is progressing slowly - a little bit more cutting is needed before I can sew the final blocks. I'm still working on Leeanne Beasley's BOM programme 'Down in the Garden' which is just sooooo lovely. I still need to take some pictures of my finished blocks to post here.
If this isn't enough, I'm still experimenting with my Oh-Cherry-Oh honeybun and this morning I've taken a 'Happy Campers' layer cake out of its packet, wondering if I could possibly make a picnic quilt from start to finish before Saturday ...
Forgot to say, pictured is the fantastic book and catalogue that I bought at the V&A Quilts exhibition. I'm still taking in all the wonderful designs from the past and am in awe of many of the techniques! I wish I could go again and see them - without my 5 year old in tow!

Finally Finished

I have finished the 'Snippets' quilt finally! I'm embarrassed to say that I started cutting out back in January - oops! I wasn't sure if I was going to like the finished article - I was very unsure about how the background fabric would work as the quality of it was not as high as that of my lovely Moda jelly roll. The finished quilt was a pleasant surprise - I fell in love with it as soon as the binding went on. Sophia adores it and has been on her bed every night this week. The quilting was, er, interesting - mainly because I changed my mind, not once, but twice! I started stippling, changed to straight lines and then returned to stippling! Am glad I did though!

Twin Quilt 2

Well, I've completed Carrie's quilt this weekend. This is largely because I've been confined to the house all weekend with a very poorly Sophia - typically on the warmest and sunniest day of the year thus far! Never mind we've had plenty of 'cwtches' and much sewing has also been accomplished - I've had lots of fun with a Moda Honeybun, details of which I'll divulge in another post! Carrie's quilt is made from a mini 'jelly roll' purchased at October's 'Quilts UK' exhibition, consisting of various Robert Kauffman flannel cotton prints. I found complimentary fabric from the same range for the backing and binding fabric. Again, I stippled this quilt, not only so it was the same as Reuben's quilt but also because I love doing it!

Twin Quilt 1

My first twin quilt is done! This one is for Reuben, my friend Rachel's baby boy. There is a sister quilt in the making for Reuben's twin Carrie which is very nearly finished. Reuben's quilt is a charm quilt made entirely from my stash. I chose a feature fabric for the centre square and picked up the colours with various fabrics I already had - the majority is from the 'Hamptons' range by Moda. It is not a very large quilt - I wanted to make something eaily transportable that would be ideal for the pram or car seat. The quilt backing is a navy polka dot, bought at my local fabric shop and the top was stippled with invisible quilting thread.

Catching up

Well I haven't blogged for nearly two weeks - how time flies! Life has been busy here following hubby's hideous work shifts, post-workmen clear up and election fever! The snippets quilt remains unfinished - after starting quilting straight lines, I changed my mind and returned to stippling! I have a few more hours work to complete before it is well and truly finished, but the end is in sight. I have also just completed a charm squares quilt for one half of my friend Rachel's twins - pics to follow! The last few days have been manic preparing for Sophia's 5th birthday - where did the time go! I managed to make her some birthday bunting (excuse the decor in the pics, but we have only lived in the house for 8 weeks!), a Barbie birthday cake and some birthday cupcakes. Tomorrow I am having a well earned break and am heading to Malvern for the quilting show. Lovely fabrics here I come!

Weeknight Quilting

I am trying this week to finish some WIPs. My Dr. husband is working four 13 hour shifts this week which means I have free quilting time once Sophia is in bed! I am trying desperately to finish a quilt I started for her just after Christmas. The quilt top was finished shortly after we moved house, it was even backed and basted ready to go, but there have been major delays as far as quilting was concerned. I started stippling it but soon realised it was going to take forever as it was so large! For speed, and ease, I have decided to quilt in a straight lines instead. With a bit of luck I should be posting a picture of the finished article before the week is out!